Bully: Anniversary Edition Review

A few weeks ago I was watching an old PewDiePie gameplay, it was on an old game called “Bully”, I was instantly hooked and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to find a copy of this game anywhere until I saw an ¨Anniversary Edition¨ for iOS on the App Store and I instantly downloaded it. “Bully” was released way back in 2006 but is still highly praised as one of the best games developed by Rockstar and Rockstar North, who also developed the Grand Theft Auto franchise. The question I was thinking, is a twelve-year-old game from a respected developer still fun today? I paid my $6.99 price and after playing for 2 weeks, here are my thoughts:

The game is about Jimmy Hopkins and his new life at Bullworth Academy, a corrupt private school where students can overthrow teachers. Despite the name, the object of the game is not to be a bully but rather to overthrow the bully in resident, a troubled kid with ADD and anger management issues. Gary starts out as your friend, welcoming Jimmy to Bullworth, but by the end, he is the primary antagonist. The story of the game is indulging due to its school setting with real school situations.

Gameplay is very limited, due to having to use the touchscreen controls of your smartphone. At first, the game was very laggy, but over time the game got patched, and now it’s more playable. The character can walk or skate around and can talk to other people, teachers, and prefects. If you step into the area of another clique that you aren’t cool with, you’ll be attacked.

The game is set in a fully explorable open world, which starts as only Bullworth Academy, but soon opens up into the town surrounding, the school as the seasons progress. Unlike new games like Fortnite that have an open world which is always the same, but barriers slowly close on you as your game progresses. Your primary objective in Fortnite is to kill everyone else around you.

The biggest drawback has to be the graphics. The game harbors the same 2006 non-detailed, very faded style graphics that was used when the game was initially released. Games today have very detailed and realistic graphics that really bring the game to life, but the graphics let you know that “Bully” is a game that is over 10 years old.

The game is still fun 12 years later as it’s completely relatable to things that a high schooler goes through. The missions itself are fun and sometimes challenging, the minigames offer a typical activity to do. The side missions for money or the side races for faster bikes are great instead of having to steal bikes.

Overall I would rate the game a 7/10 because you have to get used to the retro style graphics to get used to the game itself and once you reach winter time, beware of “The Tenements” mission because you might have to play that mission more than once.